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Marked differences in differentiation propensity among human embryonic stem cell lines

Nature Biotechnology volume 26, pages 313–315 (2008)Cite this article

Abstract

The differentiation potential of 17 human embryonic stem (hES) cell lines was compared. Some lines exhibit a marked propensity to differentiate into specific lineages, often with >100-fold differences in lineage-specific gene expression. For example, HUES 8 is best for pancreatic differentiation and HUES 3 for cardiomyocyte generation. These non-trivial differences in developmental potential among hES cell lines point to the importance of screening and deriving lines for lineage-specific differentiation.

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Figure 1: Differences between HUES lines in propensity to differentiate into pancreatic and cardiac lineages.

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Acknowledgements

We thank M. Asashima for encouraging this work, K. Rodolfa, A. Kweudjeu and C. Balatbat for excellent technical support, S. Sullivan, D. Huangfu and Q. Zhou for critically reading the manuscript. D.A.M. is an investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

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Author notes

  1. Leslie Caron and Malgorzata Borowiak: These authors contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Harvard Stem Cell Institute, 42 Church Street, Cambridge, 02138, Massachusetts, USA

    Kenji Osafune, Leslie Caron, Malgorzata Borowiak, Rita J Martinez, Claire S Fitz-Gerald, Chad A Cowan, Kenneth R Chien & Douglas A Melton

  2. Department of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology, Harvard University, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, 7 Divinity Avenue, Cambridge, 02138, Massachusetts, USA

    Kenji Osafune, Malgorzata Borowiak, Rita J Martinez, Claire S Fitz-Gerald & Douglas A Melton

  3. ICORP Organ Regeneration Project, Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST), 3-8-1 Komaba, Meguro-ku, Tokyo, 153-8902, Japan

    Kenji Osafune

  4. Massachusetts General Hospital–Cardiovascular Research Center, Charles River Plaza/CPZN 3208, 185 Cambridge Street, Boston, 02114, Massachusetts, USA

    Leslie Caron, Chad A Cowan & Kenneth R Chien

  5. Department of Biostatistics, Harvard School of Public Health, 655 Huntington Avenue, Boston, 02115, Massachusetts, USA

    Yasunori Sato

  6. Stowers Medical Institute, Charles River Plaza/CPZN 3208, 185 Cambridge Street, Boston, 02114, Massachusetts, USA

    Chad A Cowan

  7. Department of Cell Biology, Harvard Medical School, 25 Shattuck Street, Boston, 02115, Massachusetts, USA

    Kenneth R Chien

Authors
  1. Kenji Osafune
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Contributions

K.O., L.C., M.B., C.A.C., K.R.C. and D.A.M. designed the experiments. K.O., L.C., M.B., R.J.M. and C.S.F. performed experiments. K.O., L.C., M.B., Y.S., C.A.C., K.R.C. and D.A.M. analyzed the data obtained. K.O. and D.A.M. drafted the manuscript. K.O., L.C., M.B., R.J.M., C.S.F., Y.S., C.A.C., K.R.C. and D.A.M. provided revisions to the manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Douglas A Melton.

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Supplementary Text and Figures

Supplementary Figures 1–8, Tables 1–3, Methods (PDF 5075 kb)

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Osafune, K., Caron, L., Borowiak, M. et al. Marked differences in differentiation propensity among human embryonic stem cell lines. Nat Biotechnol 26, 313–315 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1038/nbt1383

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